Category: Uncategorized

Another dude walked into a public place an shot at people today. This time it was lawmakers. So it goes.

I’ve given up on gun debates. If the senseless killing of innocent children at their elementary school doesn’t move people to change, a watershed moment is not coming for gun regulation.

The problem isn’t really about gun ownership either. It’s about gun access. Even the ones we already own. I don’t own a firearm, but I can get behind eccentric hobbies. And if all you ever want to do is participate in shooting sports with assault weapons, there are ways to make that safe for everyone. If guns are kept in guarded, secure, centralized locations, own as many as you want. Enjoy your marksmanship games. Hold up your paper with the bullseyes and smile for Facebook. Then lock your rifle up at the gun bank. (I don’t suggest locking every firearm in a third locaiton, which is why I don’t mention hunting rifles and the like. But assault weapons that can cause such devastation should have a home that is not yours or mine).

The catch: Americans will never agree on whom should be the neutral third party to hold weapons. Ain’t no way the American electorate will ever willingly hand over their guns to their government. And who can blame us, right? As much as I’d love to keep guns off the streets, a Trump administration seizing all the weapons (while telling us that no personal digital information is private) is the prologue of a ham-fisted attempt to cross Kurt Vonnegut with George Orwell and McSweeney’s for a tired sci-fi novel.

Admittedly, “never trust your government,” is sort of the whole raison d’être of the constitution. But what can’t be discounted is the effect Cold War administrations had on public trust of the systems that lead. The first half of the twentieth century was defined by patriotism, civics, and general bipartisan cooperation to make the world better – at the very least, it was these things to white people who, by and large, are the ones so skittish now. But the Cold War poisoned all of that. Rampant delusional idealism, toxic paranoia, and a run of bad presidents led to the revelation that the guy in the foil hat was right. They were listening to conversations. They were toppling governments. They were killing innocent people. They were lying to us.

You can’t put that woke back into Pandora’s lockbox and pretty soon you have chemtrails, flat-earth truthers, and Pizzagate. If anything can be a lie, everything can be a lie. It goes all the way to the top, man. We live in the Matrix and whatnot.

And now, we have a world where Americans base their trust not on whom they can believe, but on whom they definitely will not believe.

News media, politicians, religious leaders, parents – there’s no one.

In other words, it’s going to be a slow, difficult grind toward gun safety. There won’t be one, or two, or ten, or fifty-eight thousand five hundred ninety-five moments that change the hearts and minds. It will only happen with long-term, consistent effort from those in the trenches, who need our support.

Because the day is not coming that paranoid, gun-lovin’ white people again trust that their government has their interests first in mind. If it does, it’s not in the kind of world that gives two shits about gun regulation.

Last weekend I saw Radiohead play an arena show in Atlanta. I sat in the back-right nosebleeds. The stage was barely visible. And it was incredible.

I shy away from the idea of favorites generally, but Radiohead is a group that consistently speaks to me on an artistic, an emotional, and an intellectual level. This was only my second time seeing them, and I’m thankful for each. They don’t tour often nor for long and they aren’t cheap when they do.

Radiohead shines at adapting their art from studio to stage. All of their albums have been heavily produced, but the later ones reflect a level of meticulous, hands-on production that becomes its own character. Every segment has more layers than one could count. Every single sound sample, riff and effect is painstakingly precise. And it’s so heavily lacquered with processed sound that even the most common instruments sound like bizarro versions of themselves from the Upside Down.

So how to you make all of this work on stage? There aren’t 75 people on stage managing all the variations of production effects, so ultimately you’re left with the basic tools that every other rock band in the world has at their disposal.

The difference of sound is stark, but poetic. Each variation of each line, each riff, each beat is a statement that the music is living and that its creators are ever innovating on the art they create. A bit that is lacking is compensated for by another, keeping the balance and the soul of the music alive. A song is a strange new iteration of itself, while completely whole. It’s a profound feat, but it’s especially impressive when the degree of difficulty is so high with all of the precious, neurotic little details.

Of course, studio to stage adaptation is the challenge of all performing artists. Radiohead just does it better than the rest of them.

Bevin’s office maintains that the governor has broad powers to temporarily reorganize university boards while the legislature isn’t in session. Franklin Circuit Court Judge Phillip Shepherd disagreed last fall, saying that the governor’s abolishment of the U of L board amounted to a wholesale firing of the school’s trustees.

Small gubment.

Meanwhile, our sitting president published an article about criminal justice reform in the Harvard Law Review today.

Criminal justice is a complex system, administered at all levels of government and shaped by a range of actors. Thanks to the dedicated efforts of so many in my Administration, the bipartisan push for reform from federal, state, and local officials, and the work of so many committed citizens outside government, America has made important strides. We have reduced overlong sentences for offenders and removed barriers for those with criminal records. We have made progress in helping people, especially young people, avoid getting entangled in the justice system in the first place.

If you’re interested in free speech (PRO TIP: you damn well better be), the second half of this episode has 👌🏾 snippets from the The 2016 Jefferson Symposium. I’ll be listening to all of the them over the next few days.

Me? I’m just gonna sit here and listen to Boxer, eat leftover chili, and rock back and forth.

Stivers said his personal preference would be to ban abortions starting at a date before 20 weeks.

“This is my belief: there are two viable beings involved,” he said. “One had a choice early on to make a decision to conceive or not. Once conception starts, another life is involved, and the legislature has the ability to determine how that life proceeds.”

[…] amend KRS 7.100 to require that the Legislative Research Commission designate every multiple occupancy bathroom or changing facility it controls to only be used by persons based on their biological sex […]

So, we are shifting our resources and attention to defining a new model for writers and creators to be rewarded, based on the value they’re creating for people. And toward building a transformational product for curious humans who want to get smarter about the world every day.

I had actually been flirting with moving all of this over to Medium as my primary platform. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

“There are a lot of social issues that we will tackle eventually, but right now we want to stay focused. We want people to have a job. Nobody cares what bathroom you go into if they can’t get a job,” House Majority Whip Kevin Bratcher (R), said.

Classy. Should be an interesting session. This guy now has his seat and nameplate.

Good piece on vigilance of ಠ_ಠ in what you’re reading. tl;dr, all inspirational quotes are clickbait bullshit.

[…] If we were to add up every word in every scholarly piece of work published prior to the Enlightenment, this number would still pale in comparison with the number of words used to promulgate bullshit on the internet in the 21st century alone.

In the end, Mr. Obama decided to expand an executive order that he issued in April 2015, after the Sony hacking. He signed it in Hawaii on Thursday morning, specifically giving himself and his successor the authority to issue travel bans and asset freezes on those who “tamper with, alter, or cause a misappropriation of information, with a purpose or effect of interfering with or undermining election processes or institutions.”

COOL. Probably won’t be used broadly or out of context. Nooooope.

sorry for the 😑 take on this but expanding executive power isn’t awesome or timely.

Richard Sherman is woke af. This is a topic that should wash over college football, maybe even more than the NFL. Dudes have classes, papers, homework, exams, and no millions of dollars. Hotel rooms suck for focus.

I took a little break and actually enjoyed this weekend of not thinking about bad stuff. But the takes just keep on a’comin’. There are more, recent things, but I wanted to make sure to squeeze these in.

In the middle of his criticism of unnamed city leaders, Jurich added that “I really appreciate this governor, and I want to do anything that I can to help and support him, but he’s the only one I really want to help.”

The band chalks all their current trouble up to a mere “pitcher of beer – shared by three of-age band alumni at a friend’s farewell dinner.” That doesn’t address the allegations that the band had a culture of alcohol abuse and hazing, but even though the statement ignores the specifics of their case, their larger-scale points ring true. Stanford is an incredibly staid institution and the band—while a faux-subversive organization with a shoddy sense of humor—is a genuine outlier at a place that strives to be a streamlined Silicon Valley finishing school.

"Let’s not even talk about the egregious timing with finals knocking at the door. I for one have never felt so empty inside, as the Stanford band was my safe space, my smultronställe, my everything. I’m left hapless wondering if Stanford actually gives a shit about me.”

💯 episode on the implication of DT administration on other young democracies globally. There’s a knee-jerk, Stockholm syndrome-y tendency to lump baby-hands in with a number of other despotic dudes without acknowledging the example the American Republic lends. This ain’t Poland, basically.

<THREAD> I’m now hearing this meme that says Obama, Clinton, et al. are doing nothing, just gave up.